We are overjoyed to welcome back artist Erika Marie Carter for the Summer of 2023. We are featuring her artworks on five new wines, including four reds and a delicious 2022 Rosé of Grenache. For more information Visit Erika's Website.
Artiste Winemaker Bion Rice blended these four new red wines for your Summer food pairings. These new blends range from fruity and floral to rich, dark and full bodied, and each wine has that classic “Artiste” mouthfeel and a long finish. Here’s what he had to say about the new blends:
El Corazon de Jasveer is one of those wines I expect people to say “Well That’s Interesting”, which can mean many things. They may not like it, they may love it, or they may be confused and unsure what to say. To me that is true art. To be an Artiste is to be thought provoking, which is why I constantly risk attempting blends that most critics would call unorthodox, or even absurd. Who dares blend the purity of Pinot Noir?! In my opinion Pinot is like Merlot: An ideal blending wine. It elevates so many other varietals with respect to its delicate elegance and yet deeply profound complexity. This painting represents that to me. I was immediately called to make poetry in a glass as the book lays open and ready to read on the table with the most phenomenal bird in the known universe hovering over it next to a pot of tea, next to a wise soul with radiating eyes, so beautifully decorated by flowers and fruit. This image is as “interesting” and tantalizingly intriguing as this wine. Because of this I leave the wine notes to you. What’s your impression? Send us your comments to taste@artiste.com.
Mi Amor Amapolas challenged my synesthesia abilities to make a red wine smell like the color orange. Synesthesia is a fancy name for when you experience one of your senses through another. It was as if she was winking at me saying “I dare you the way the artist dared me to pose for this image standing here with poppies on my head”. Challenge accepted. This wine may not taste like the color orange to you, but it does to me. The final blend of 75% Grenache and 25% Syrah displays powerful aromas of a reduced stew of wild plums, strawberries and blood orange rinds, accented by dried green herbs, new leather, black pepper and smoked cedar. Dense flavors of cherries and ripe strawberries are finished by milk chocolate, dark plum and smoky cedar. Picture yourself picking poppies near a recently burnt orchard in the heart of Mexico as the rain begins to fall, and you will find me there, smiling.
La Flor del Sur is emblematic of my wife: Radiating powerful energy, full of grace and beauty, inside and out. This painting inspired me to take a bold and powerful varietal like Petit Verdot, which has a ton of personality, and compliment it with the magic of Merlot to soften and elevate it to a whole new level. Blackberry jam and dark cherry compote is enveloped by flint, gravel and petrichor aromatics, followed by violet, burnt sage, tea leaves and cedar. 63% of this blend is 2020 vintage, aged for 22 months in 40% new French oak barrels, and 37% was 2021 vintage aged in 20% new French Oak. Flavors of spicy dark fruit, smoked meats, dark coffee bean and earth, with a long finish of dried herbs and smokey oak. Try this wine with barbecue pork ribs, lamb burgers, or grilled steaks.
La Flor de Elza is an image of a quiet, young lady traditionally dressed, fearlessly balancing a large cactus on her head. She inspired me to use traditional Bordeaux varietals in a brave and daring sort of way. Petit Verdot being one of the five classic varietals of Bordeaux it is typically used as a minor blending wine that is used to add power, color, and texture, but very rarely the dominant component. It needed to be tamed with Merlot to soften its prickliness and intensity, then accented with two traditional varietals, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, just to show them who’s boss in this blend. It’s aromas of black currant, blackberry and dark plum are accented by anise, ripe fig, lilac, local wild sage and wet, gravely earth. 60% of this blend is 2020 vintage, aged for 22 months in 50% new French oak barrels, and 40% was 2021 vintage, which lends its youthful vibrancy and added structure. Flavors of bold dark fruit, smoked meats, with a long finish of dried herbs, brown sugar and toasty oak. Try this wine with oak grilled steaks or rich Indian cuisine.
Thank you for your love and devotion to Artiste. Enjoy these new Summer wines!
- Bion Rice, Artiste Winemaker